Being the son-in-law of the Khmer in the South, I have many opportunities to integrate into the life of this ethnic group, especially in the culinary field.
In the tenth lunar month of that year, a few months after the wedding, my wife and I went to visit the house of my wife’s parents. Early in the morning, my wife asked me to tell phsa (to go to the market). Rural market is a market that sells along the roadside, squatting, the Khmer call it sa ohm cham ngo no. My wife bought some vegetables, shrimps and bacon when she saw people selling leaves and aluminum cotton. She said that the month of October of the lunar calendar is the sad season where the leaves change and produce clusters of white blooms. But she doesn’t have to buy prahoc sauce because it’s a main dish and condiment that every Khmer family must have.
Where are the leaves and flowers – a wild plant that grows a lot in An Giang. Photo: Tourism Newspaper Prohoc sauce (prohok – boo hoc), according to my mother-in-law, the climate in the South has two seasons: rainy and sunny. In addition to the rice season, the fish season is also the main season of the Khmer farmers in the South. They catch fish in many forms such as slapping or fishing, spreading nets, fishing nets, etc. Where they can be caught, they can be dried there with large fish, while small fish are made into beef sauce. Every house makes two or three jars to eat all year round. Bo hoc sauce is almost considered as the main dish in the culinary life of the Khmer people as well as the Vietnamese people’s snakehead, choke, and roe sauces. Although their way of making prohoc fish sauce is similar to that in Cambodia, but through the stages to become bohoc sauce, it is necessary that there is no longer a musty smell, especially without maggots. Usually they use snakehead fish more than other types of fish, of course, snakehead fish to make fish sauce will be more delicious. Select suffocated snakehead fish, scrape the scales, scrape the blood on the spine, wash and soak in cold water for a day and a night (24g), then take it out and leave it in a basket to drain. Use a knife to gradually fish the fish, add a small pinch of salt and a little cold rice, mix well. Incubate in a sealed container, the next day take out the fish and place it in a thick basket, cover the basket with a piece of mocha, use a rock or heavy object to ballast the water with a fishy smell. Then, put the fish in a jar or glass glue, use your hands to receive the fish easily, cut the mo areca to fit the mouth of the jar or glue it on, use a bamboo brace to fasten it. Then proceed to cook salt water poured over the fish and then dried in the sun. About three months, the fish sauce can be eaten, but only used for making stewed, fried, seasoned soups, cooked vermicelli or cooked with potted rice noodles with shaved corn with straw mushrooms and snakehead fish or shrimp. If you want to eat it raw, you must leave it for a year or more, the longer you leave it, the more delicious it will be. 
Beef broth of Khmer people. Usually fish sauce is eaten raw with thinly sliced fruit or paired with herbs of all kinds. In particular, when cooking vermicelli, fish meat is shredded, boned, put in a mortar with wormwood vermicelli, boiled, combed for water, then added fresh snakehead fish, pork, minced lemongrass into the pot of water. leo. Those who have never eaten prahoc sauce, when they heard the name mentioned, they were afraid. But if you happen to stand in the wind, someone is cooking fish sauce, the sense of smell can enjoy a faint aroma mixed between the pungent smell of brewed fish and the sweet aroma of fish sauce. That taste makes us drowsy, listening to the hungry stomach. Having a sip of spinach soup or a bowl of vermicelli, there was nothing happier than that. Happier if you can eat a piece of raw fish sauce sandwiched with the fruit, the sour and sour taste of the fish sauce mixed with the sweet and fragrant taste of the fish sauce, the warm and spicy taste of minced lemongrass, dissolved in a sip of wine cooked with rice, is nothing better. It’s like listening to the wine pushing the fish sauce and slowly drifting into the throat, slowly ripening… gradually…, falling into the stomach. Please bear with me, I don’t know what language to use to describe all that “delicious” pleasure! 
Where is the dried gourd salad with choke fish . Photo: Tourism Newspaper At home, my wife gently washes each bunch of young leaves, each tiny bunch of tiny aluminum flakes, drains before mixing the salad with cucumber, thinly sliced tomatoes, and purple onions. Similar to the way to mix durian salad of the Vietnamese people in Sam mountain (Chau Doc, An Giang), it is mixed with dried snakehead fish, shredded grilled snakehead fish or with shrimp, tiger, boiled bacon cut into pieces and eaten together. coriander leaves. But, with the Khmer it is a little different. After washing vegetables, tomatoes are grated into thin circles; thinly sliced purple onion; cilantro, chopped coriander only; chili, minced garlic. After that, my wife started to process the mixed water and put the cooked tamarind in a bowl to make boiling water, stirring to dissolve the tamarind rice. Then she began to process the mixed water, using cooked tamarind in a bowl or cup, boiling water in, stirring with chopsticks until the sour substance was diluted in the water. Prahoc sauce is also put in a bowl, add boiling water, and crumble until the meat is broken. Then, comb the water to decant the fish baits and bones. Crush garlic, chili, add a little granulated sugar and then add two kinds of tamarind juice, fish sauce, stir well, sweet and sour seasoning. When the shrimp or tiger is cooked, take it out, take out the cooked meat and cut it into thin pieces. Put both in a bowl of vegetables, add the mixed water, mix well with the leaves and flowers, then start enjoying. Unlike at home, where I sit to eat on a chair around the table, Khmer people eat on a plank, all the dishes are arranged in the heart of the board. Everyone in the family, along with my father’s two brothers and my (mother’s) brother, my wife sat cross-legged around the tray of rice. My father is the oldest person in the family, holding a cup and chopsticks to invite: “Each oot kho nia hop bai” (the whole family eats rice). I took each chopsticks of salad into my mouth, chewed slowly, the sweet and sour taste of cucumber, tomato, the spicy taste of garlic, chili, laksa leaves, coriander mixed with the sweetness of shrimp meat, the fat of pork belly. shine in the district with the sweet and bitter taste of sorrow. All of these are imbued with the sweet aroma of beef sauce, creating a delicious taste. Sorrow salad is no longer a favorite dish for men to sip with kh Kha wine, there is nothing better than telling stories in gatherings. My father-in-law holds a bottle of wine that is fermented with home-cooked glutinous rice that my uncle and I bring in according to the Khmer custom in the days of Sene Dolta (anniversary ceremony). He poured out a small glass, clear drops of wine slowly sparkling, showing a very high alcohol concentration. Picking up the glass, he said: “Onh Chon ate every ounce of happiness” (inviting everyone to drink wine). He brought a glass of wine to his lips, gulped it down, then wheezed, said: “Sê Chchanh” (good wine) and then poured a pass for each person. When I came to my circle, I refused because the wine was too strong, but my uncle said: “Num salinh top brother chon” (Ba Thuong Ba just invited). Hearing that, I couldn’t refuse and reached out to accept the wine glass. Before drinking, I picked up a chopsticks of salad, put it in my mouth, chewed it slowly, enjoying the sweet aroma, then swallowed, then gulped down the glass with my breath, the spicy alcohol on the surface of my tongue and then “swallowed” the salad pieces for them. drifting slowly, slowly, heating up as if they were ripening, softening and disintegrating. Enjoying this delicious dish, I realized that, no matter how sad, but when chewing a piece of melancholy salad, the sorrow is also broken and blended into the delicious taste that gradually drifts down to the stomach, leaving only a sweet, bitter aftertaste on the tip of the tongue that we always feel like eating more! 
Chau Doc (An Giang), where is known as the “kingdom” of fish sauce. Photo: Huynh LamTGTT On that day, when the cool winds swayed the surface of the Hau River, the first rain of the April season watered the fields and awakened the young shrimps that were still sleeping in spring in the shells clinging to the field or in frogs and crab burrows. , eels, snakes… At that time, the uncles started a self-reliant life. This is also the time when Khmer farmers are busy for the rice sowing season. The lush green carpets grow with the water. The shrimps are also growing up. By the middle of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the rice begins to ripen and the fields are golden, and people are anxious for the harvest. The fields are drained and the water flows down the canals and canals. This is the season of catching shrimp. Children, adults, women, young people, anyone can participate. People use bamboo slats, walk in the deep corners of the fields or use fine nets to drag along the canals. But the most common is to use scrubbing to place the free place to drain the water flowing down the canals to catch shrimp. Shrimp is an inexpensive source of wild food, but rich in protein, calcium, and easy to prepare. Can be boiled with rice paper, raw vegetables; fried dough; warehouse; roasted… but the best is to make fish sauce. The Khmer shrimp paste, called bo-ot, is different from the type of shrimp paste we usually use. The method is also simple, but must be carefully selected, remove moss, snail shells, dead leaves, grass, garbage, etc. Most importantly, remove the ones on the head with luminous substance by putting the shrimp in the ball. dark for easy viewing. If chosen incorrectly, when making fish sauce, it is easy to be poisoned. After choosing, wash, and use 1kg of shrimp with a high concentration of base wine, 50gr of granulated salt, marinate, cover for about 30 minutes, drain water, mix in a cup of cold rice, 100g of white granulated sugar, Get the cloves into the glue. About three days later, add chopped ginger, garlic, and crushed chili, mix well into the glue. Try eating a piece of ginger, if it tastes sour, the fish sauce has been eaten. Bo-ot fish sauce is very delicious, sour, sweet, aromatic, spicy… stimulating the digestive system, it is difficult for any kind of shrimp paste to be compared with its unique flavor. Shrimp sauce is served with raw vegetables of all kinds along with fresh vermicelli, rice paper and pineapple, acrid banana, sour fruit, thin slices when the family has an anniversary, party… But it is also used as food in daily meals. family day. When eating sandwich with grilled catfish, beef sauce gives me its wonderful taste, so I can’t help but “work hard” to bring my wife back to visit her family whenever I have the opportunity. And every time, besides visiting the health of my wife’s parents, and then gathering around the family tray of rice, I often enjoy the unique taste of beef sauce and beef sauce in a meal full of love. feel dear!
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